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Education and Health Access
Health (as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is as a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease. Education - the facilitation of learning or acquisition of skills or knowledge What is the Problem? There are significant challenges to overcome to ensure that access to healthcare services and facilities are equitable to all Australians. These challenges are influenced by the several determinants of health that includes the financial and social determinants. For example, there are significant health disparities among individuals Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities (ATSI) as compared to non-ATSI individuals who experience great health inequities. When health disparities are severe, individuals are exposed to a variety of diseases (Thomson, Mitchell, & Williams, 2006), which are amplified with lack of healthcare services due to geographical and financial isolation (Habib, Perveen, & Khuwaja, 2016; Peters et al., 2008). The scale of the problem: # 39% of health inequities between ATSI and Non-ATSI individuals can be explained by the social determinants of health (PMC, 2017). # The median weekly income for ATSI individuals was $300 dollars less than non-ATSI individuals (PMC, 2016) # Cardiovascular Disease was the leading dause of death among ATSI people (Human Rights, 2008) Problem and Current/Future Solutions. Current Solutions Current health policy has improved the health of All Australians by introducing policies such as Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS): * Medicare - '''Medicare is publicly funded a universal health system in Australia that provides free or subsidised treatments to all Australian’s regardless of socioeconomic status. * '''PBS – Provides affordable and subsidised medicines to all Australian’s that would normally be expensive. Future Solutions However, current and future leaders need to understand that there is a complex and often multi-dimensional interaction between people at an individual, community, state and federal level. These individuals will likely benefit if they are nurtured to learn, grow and improve from health systems (Gilson & Agyepong, 2018). ATSI and rural communities still experience the greatest burden of disease due to the financial and social burdens that they experience. Leaders and policy makers can reduce this burden by providing the necessary education, and incentivising productivity (Thornton et al., 2016) to target these individuals who experience the greatest levels of health inequality. Additionally, public health communities should embrace scientific discovers that enhance public health practices to better understand the relationship between health and education and improve public health (Hahn & Truman, 2015). Evidence about the effectiveness. The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) is a community body that represents 143 ATSI communities, which is the embodiment of ATSI aspirations that focuses on the health and well-being of ATSI individuals. These community-based interventions have been effective in engaging in the clinical care of ATSI. For example, community-based organisations such as NACCHO were 23% more effective at retaining and attracting ATSI individuals. Furthermore, leadership-related interventions were found to be effective towards the successful delivery of health service (Govender, Gerwel Proches, & Kader, 2018). These can lead to the implementation of education-based goals was found as an important facilitator of long-term is transformative and health-enhancing behaviours, which have a potential to improve public health (Hahn & Truman, 2015). These initiatives can have lasting and impactful effects that can improve the quality of health of ATSI individuals. Short and Long Term Effects Short Term * People – Are empowered to better their health with the increased availability of resources that cater for their needs. In addition, people are taught about long term strategies that can have positive effects on society. However, people are also very unlikely to be open to changes because many individuals prefer routine and changes to routine can be an inconvenience. Leaders and policy makers must advocate for their implementation to ensure that people benefit from these changes. * Environment – The environment determines how likely people are to be accepting of proposed health policies. Individuals of non-ATSI backgrounds are more likely to accept these changes to the health landscape, while ATSI individuals will benefit from a more community approach because there has to be a holistic approach to educating ATSI individuals who are more likely to be more accepting of ideas from their community or older individuals apart of their community. * Society – Increased cost of treatment, health services and education programs. In addition, there are some level of ignorance and conformity to what already exists that must be overcome. Some leaders will advocate for the implementation of these new changes for the better of society. Long Term * People – Long term effects of ATSI education and changes to health policy, are empowered and have greater control of their health. These result in decreased mortality/morbidity rates of individuals within ATSI and rural communities. Furthermore, these individuals can pass on positive health enhancing messages to further promote health in their community. * Environment – Individuals can become more accepting of changes to further enhance their own lives. * Society – Improved productivity and empowered individuals that people are no longer a burden because of the current health inequities affecting ATSI and rural communities. This will save the Government billions if not trillions of dollars that that can be further used into the community, from money saved in the costs to treat hospitalised individuals. Challenges & Obstacles The first potential challenge that would need to be overcome when implementing these solutions is leadership. An empowering leader can provide individuals with improved autonomy (Cai, Cai, Sun, & Ma, 2018). These must be leaders that work at a community level and are able to advocate for health changes to improve the health disparities that exist in ATSI and rural communities. In addition, these leaders would need to work alongside organisations such as NACCHO, who are already implementing and aiding individuals experiencing great health inequalities. Another obstacle that needs to be overcome when introducing health policy for distribution is to ensure that there is no unequal distribution of health or services. To ensure that this is ensures, a multi-sectoral approach is required to ensure that there is an equitable distribution of health(Gopalan, Mohanty, & Das, 2011). This is significant especially among ATSI populations who are marginalised and less capable. Measuring Success Success metrics refers to how successful these interventions are. For example, leaders, policy makers and community organisations (such as NACCHO) can measure success by aiding many ATSI and rural communities to ensure that their health and well-being is enhances and individuals are learning about nurture and growth for positive change. There are no real means to measure success because changing the life of one individual is very successful Vision Statement Equitable Health Among ATSI: To reduce the health gap between ATSI and Non-ATSI individuals. Reference: Cai, D., Cai, Y., Sun, Y., & Ma, J. (2018). Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Work Engagement: The Effects of Person-Job Fit, Person-Group Fit, and Proactive Personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1304. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01304 Gilson, L., & Agyepong, I. A. (2018). Strengthening health system leadership for better governance: what does it take? Health Policy and Planning, 33(suppl_2), ii1-ii4. doi:10.1093/heapol/czy052 Gopalan, S. S., Mohanty, S., & Das, A. (2011). Challenges and opportunities for policy decisions to address health equity in developing health systems: case study of the policy processes in the Indian state of Orissa. International Journal for Equity in Health, 10, 55-55. doi:10.1186/1475-9276-10-55 Govender, S., Gerwel Proches, C. N., & Kader, A. (2018). Examining leadership as a strategy to enhance health care service delivery in regional hospitals in South Africa. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 11, 157-166. doi:10.2147/JMDH.S151534 Habib, S. S., Perveen, S., & Khuwaja, H. M. A. (2016). The role of micro health insurance in providing financial risk protection in developing countries- a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 281-224. doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2937-9 Hahn, R. A., & Truman, B. I. (2015). Education Improves Public Health and Promotes Health Equity. International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation, 45(4), 657-678. doi:10.1177/0020731415585986 Pmc.gov.au. (2018). 2017 HPF Report - 2.08 Income. online Available at: https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/indigenous/hpf-2017/tier2/208.html 12 Oct. 2018. Thomson, G. E., Mitchell, F., & Williams, M. (2006). Examining the health disparities research plan of the National Institutes of Health: Unfinished business. Thornton, R. L. J., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R. (2016). Evaluating Strategies For Reducing Health Disparities By Addressing The Social Determinants Of Health. Health affairs (Project Hope), 35(8), 1416-1423. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1357 Who.int. (2018). Home. online Available at: http://www.who.int/ 12 Oct. 2018. __FORCETOC__ Category:Indigenous Category:Health Category:ATSI Category:Education